Analytic free-form lens design in 3D: coupling three ray sets using two lens surfaces

Duerr, Fabian; Benı́tez, Pablo; Miñano, Juan C.; Meuret, Youri; Thienpont, Hugo

doi:10.1364/oe.20.010839

Cited by 53 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…13 We generalized the 2D analytic optics design method to the 3D case. 14 We used Fermat's principle to derive additional sets of functional differential equations, which made it possible to calculate the Taylor series functions describing the free-form lens surfaces with more than 100 coefficients. Two exemplary calculated solutions are a meniscus and a biconvex lens: see Figure 5.…”

Section: Figure 2 (A) Schematic Assembly Of a Conventional Concentramentioning

confidence: 99%

Compact, high-efficiency sunlight harvesting

Duerr¹,

Gimenez²,

Dominguez³

et al. 2012

SPIE Newsroom

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A new free-form optics design method could unleash the full potential of tracking integrated solar concentratorsConcentrating photovoltaic (CPV) systems use optics to concentrate sunlight onto solar cells. By increasing the concentration of light that reaches the solar cell, CPV systems allow the area of the solar cell to be reduced. Solar cells are made of expensive semiconductor material, and CPV systems consist of inexpensive mirrors or lenses. Thus, a CPV module-consisting of the CPV system, and the cell-can be cheaper than the solar cell alone, but equally efficient. High-efficiency multi-junction solar cells can boost the conversion efficiency of CPV modules beyond 30%, but their expense means they require a high concentration of light (>400 ) to be economically viable. Achieving this level of concentration normally requires dual-axis tracking of the sun's diurnal and seasonal movements.Most CPV manufacturers work with very large modules and pedestal-mounted dual-axis trackers: see Figure 1. These systems are suitable for utility-scale power plants, but are less adequate for providing power to mid-scale or smaller operations. In contrast, photovoltaic (PV) modules with single-axis trackers are already in use on flat rooftops. Currently, CPV systems designed for single-axis trackers are limited to a concentration of about 300 for polar alignment, where the tracker axis equals the Earth's axis of rotation. 1 This concentration is not sufficient for economic use of multi-junction solar cells.Existing CPV system designs vary, but almost all treat the CPV modules and the external trackers separately: see Figure 2(a). In contrast, our approach integrates part of the external solar tracking functionality into the CPV module: 2 see Figure 2(b). The laterally-moving optics arrays are mounted on a polar-aligned single-axis tracker, and combine the concentration and steering of the incident sun light. Tracking integration can be used to reduce the external tracking effort in favor of compact installation size, [3][4][5] or to fine-tune the total tracking functionality, allowing coarse external solar tracking. 6 Figure 2. (a) Schematic assembly of a conventional concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) module for pedestal-mounted dual-axis trackers, and (b) our tracking integrated CPV module for polar-aligned single-axis trackers (b).While a benefit of dual-axis trackers over fixed installationswhich allow for the modules to always be pointed at the sun-is the increased yearly insolation, comparing the potential annual energy yield for polar-aligned single-axis trackers with dual axis trackers shows only moderate differences. 7 The tracking integration of our single-axis system covers an angular range of˙24• for incident direction vectors (pointing at the sun) within a single plane. If symmetry is considered, it is evident that rotational symmetric lenses are not an optimal solution. We developed a new design algorithm, 8 based on the simultaneous multiple Continued on next page

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Section: Figure 2 (A) Schematic Assembly Of a Conventional Concentramentioning

confidence: 99%

Compact, high-efficiency sunlight harvesting

Duerr¹,

Gimenez²,

Dominguez³

et al. 2012

SPIE Newsroom

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“…Standard integrating methods have been applied to obtain the numerical solution to get the aspherical profiles, although Willstrop and Lynden-Bell gave analytical solutions of the Schwarzschild design [4,5]. The SMS 2D method is another method that has been used to directly design two rotational aspherical surfaces for imaging [6], which can be seen as a system of functional differential equations [7]. It has been used, for instance, to design a telephoto for the SWIR band [8], and the SMS aspherical surfaces have been used as the starting point for finding an optimized solution [9,10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Single freeform surface imaging design with unconstrained object to image mapping

Liu¹,

Benı́tez²,

Miñano³

2014

Opt. Express

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An imaging design approach which is free of third-order astigmatism for one freeform optical surface and the image is presented in this paper. A set of differential equations is derived from generalized ray tracing. The solution of the above derived equations provides the anastigmatic freeform optical surface, the image surface and the object to image mapping. The obtained design can be used as a good starting point for optimization. As an example, a reflective freeform surface is designed for a single reflective Head Mounted Display (HMD). This example has a 3 mm pupil, 15mm eye clearance, 24-degree diagonal full field of view, and the final design yields an average MTF of 62.6% across 17 field points.

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“…For instance, this happens for the designs in ref [2] and [3]. For this reason we want to explore here imaging designs aiming to anastigmatic imaging (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%